1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inflatable life rafts, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved life raft construction of a portable design which may be directly attached to the body of a user until needed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous types of automatically inflatable life rafts presently in commercial use. Typically, these prior art inflatable life rafts are packed in an easily accessible manner within a storage container. At the time of deployment, a containerized raft may be tossed in the water where it will float, and a lanyard extending from the raft may be pulled to activate a carbon dioxide cylinder valve to inflate the raft. The inflation of the raft usually effects a separation of the container sections and renders the raft accessible to a user. A good prior art example of this type of containerized raft is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,239, which issued to E. Brown on July 28, 1981. The Brown patent discloses a self righting, automatically inflatable life raft. Another prior art example of such a life raft is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,095,974, which issued to H. Finch on Oct. 19, 1937. This patent also discloses a containerized raft which may be tossed in the water prior to inflation, with both of these rafts being activated by carbon dioxide cylinder valves.
While all of these prior art containerized life rafts are functional for their intended purposes, it can be appreciated that they are typically of a substantially large construction which prevents a direct attachment of their holding containers to an individual. Further, inasmuch as the rafts are not attachable to an individual, it will usually be necessary for such individual to swim to a raft to thus effect its inflation. In those situations where a person is not a good swimmer or perhaps suffers from an injury, it would be desirable to provide some means whereby the individual could be directly coupled to the life raft prior to a need for its use. In this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.